Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-08-19

TINS stretched an Ordinary wooden treStle
bridge. The train came laundering down.
the engineer of the front engine saw
/ the bridge afre. There was no
chance to stop. AS the first. en-
CINE went over, the bridge fell
! beneath it. Only the terrific speed of
the train saved the lives of the engineer
and his fireman. The next engine went
down and the coaches piled ON top of an
other, ina twinkle Of an eye nearly 100 PEG.
pie found an instant death, SO more
so hurt they could not live. Only the
sleeping coaches escaped. In the ditch
lay the second engineer ,McClintock, dead
Fireman Apologize badly injured. On
these were piled three baggage cars and
six coaches. They were telescoped as cars
never were before and Chree were pressed
into just space enough for one. The Sec
ond car had crashed through the car ahead
crushing the woodwork and lay resting
on top of the seats. Every passenger in
the front car was dead or dying under
meath.
The second car lay bottom up smeared
with the blood of the victims. The other
three cars were not so badly crushed, but
were broken and twisted in every con
ceivable way. Every crushed timber and
! beam represented crushed human frame.
Instantly the air was filled with the cries
of the wounded and the shreks of the
! dying. The groans Of the men and the
! screams of the women united to make an
appalling sound. Above all was heard
the agonlzing cries of little children, as in
some instances they lay pinned alongside
their parents.
Another terrible danger was the bridge
still burning and the wrecked cars lying
on and around the blazing embers. Every
a Wnun1pG m
women and children, whose lives depended
on Immediate eXtrication. There was not
a drop of water, and only some 80 able
bodied men who still had presence of mind.
For four hours the men fought like tends
and earth was the only weapon. The des-
perate men dug their fingers down in the
earth which the long drought had
baked almost as hard as stone,
and heaped the precious handfuls
upon the flames with an earthwork built
handful by handful they kept back the
fire underneath the wrecked cars be-
meath the fire with pieces of board, and
sometimes with their hands beat back
the flames when they flashed up along
side some unfortunate wretch pinned
down. Finally the victory was won and
the fire was put out. AS the last sparks
died down came on scene of horror. Men
had been dying constantly There were not
so many wounded. to take out as four hours
before. The country had been.aroused. Help
came from Chatsworth Forest and Piper
and the dead were laid reverently along
side each other in the corn field. Ready
hands bore the wounded into Chatsworth
and Piper City. A lis was the awful poll
of the dead. The full tale cannot be told
for days. Chatsworth was turned into
morgue. The town hall, engine house
aud depot are all filled with dead bodies.
Every house in the village has its quota
of wounded.
A hand of roiccreaptc baoan plup1arinc,
the dead from the first, taking even tn
shoes. A horrible suspicion exists that
the accident was deliberately planned and
the bridge fired by the miscreants for the
purpose of robbery. Fiends went into the
cars when the cars were burning fiercely
underneath, when the poor wretches were
pinned there and stripped them of watches
and Jewelry and searched their pockets
Tor money. When the dead bodies were |
laid out in the corntields the hyenas turned |
them over i'll the search for valuables !!
This morning in the cornfields 16 purses |
all empty were found in heap. Had the |
plunderers been caught they would have
been hanged to the nearest tree.
The Action of the Railroad Company |
Strongly Condemued-FearfaI Sights
at the Scene of the Terrible Disaster
as Told by the Survivors,
CHICAGO, Aug. 12.-Despatches from
Chatsworth say that indirectly the cat
astrophe on the Toledo, Peoria and West
ern railroad is ascribed to the origin of so
many other recent calamities. The I'M
drouth had rendered the tall |
grass under a little culvert a few miles i
east of Chatsworth as dry as finder, and
locomotive spark set it ablaze. The tim
bers of the culvert caught fire and We're
lHprlnO a T. n nf
of eXcursionists from Peoria and Bloom
lngton and neighboring cities approached.
There was terrific crash and an accident
almost unprecedented in horror. That
was the brief story quickly CLEANED on the
streets of Chatsworth last evening.
The rapiditY with which the train was I
going may be imagined when it is under
stood that the first engine leaped over the
chasm and holding the track went on with |
but little injury. The second engine
ploughed its way along the track for
nearly 200 feet and finally went out over
on the side most complete wreck. Piing |
on top of, and dove-taling one another, |
came the regular passenger coaches with |
their loads of human freight, and there !
was an indescribable tangled mass of
splintereN cars and mangled bodies. All !
night long and all day the sad work of re |
moving the dead and wounded occupied I
the good people of the vicinity and the !,
many helpers who came from adjacent |
cities.
CHATswoRTH, Aug. l2.-Miller Patter-
son, when he left home carried silver
watch and $50, only about 81 50 was found
on his body, A man apparently a tramp,
aged about 80 caught in the act of rob
bling a corpse made sneak for Piper City.
For three hours woman was hanging
out car window The body was lifeess.
She was caught by the thighs and it took
Is minutes to eXtricate her Her legs
were horribly mangled, the flesh being
completely torn Off One man got out of
the cars, near him was woman with a
fine gold watch and chain she was badly
injured and cried with anguish "Oh, God
help me" man turned, apparently to as
sist her, but instead stopped over
and grabbed the watch aud chain and fled
a rescuing party saw watches, chains and
p0cketbooks scattered around. Such as
they had time they picked up and restored
to their owners The train wreckers are